Hime no Mae (姫の前)
Hime no Mae (year of birth and death unknown) was a woman who lived in the early Kamakura period. She was a daugther of Tomomune HIKI who was a Gokenin (a vassal of the shogunate) of the Kamakura Bakufu (Japanese feudal government headed by a shogun). She was the lawful wife of Yoshitoki HOJO, who was the second regent of Kamakura Bakufu. Her children were Tomotoki HOJO (the founder of NAGOE-ryu [Line of HOJO clan]), Shigetoki HOJO (the founder of Gokurakuji-ryu [Line of HOJO clan]), and Takedono (a wife of OE no Chikahiro first and then a wife of Sadamichi TSUCHIMIKADO).
Hime no Mae, who worked at MINAMOTO no Yoritomo's Palace as a court lady was famous for her beauty, and according to "Azumakagami" (a histrical book written in the Kamakura period), she was described as 'a daughter of Tomomune TONAI in HIki county and at the time a matchlessly powerfull employee, a favorite of MINAMOTO no Yoritomo, and a very beautifull woman.'
Yoshitoki kept sending love letters to Hime no Mae for about a year without any response, and Yoritomo who could not stand watching this helped Yoshitoki to marry her by making him write a sworn oath, saying 'he would never divorce her.'
Thus, Hime no Mae finally married with Yoshitoki on November 8, 1192 and gave birth to Yoshitoki's second son, Tomotoki in 1193 and to his third son, Shigetoki in 1198.
Her later life was unknow, however, since Hime no Mae's family, the Hiki clan was destroyed after Yoshikazu HIKI no Hen (the Conspiracy of Yoshikazu HIKI) in 1203, and Yoshitoki remarried Iga no Kata who gave birth to his son, Masamura HOJO in 1205, she was presumed to have died or to be divorced for any reason during this time.